Vytjie Mentor intervenes in state capture case

Former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor has filed papers at the high court in Pretoria seeking to intervene in President Jacob Zuma’s bid to halt the release of the public protector’s “state capture” report.

The matter was initially set down to be heard on 18 October and will now take place on 1 November. The court had postponed it along with an interdict application by cooperative governance minister Des van Rooyen’s application, which has since been abandoned.

Mentor was one of those who were interviewed by former public protector Thuli Madonsela in her investigation into “state capture”.

In March 2016, she alleged the Gupta family, which has close ties to President Jacob Zuma, offered her the job of minister of public enterprises in 2010 in exchange for cancelling South African Airways routes to India.

In her affidavit, Mentor said she is seeking to intervene in the Zuma matter as a respondent, and is asking that the president’s application be dismissed.

Mentor is also asking the court to direct Zuma to pay the costs of the application.

The former MP lays out details, some of which are already in the public domain, of the meeting she attended at the Guptas’ Saxonwold home.

“I declined the offer and told the Gupta representatives that they lacked the authority to make such an offer. As I was leaving, the president entered the room,” she wrote.

Mentor also documents that a week after the incident, Zuma reshuffled his cabinet.

She said that in October this year, it was reported in the media that the president requested a list of witnesses from the public protector.

“I viewed this as an attempt by the president to intimidate those persons who had given evidence to the public protector against him.”

Last week, new public protector Busiswe Mkhwebane said in an affidavit that she would not oppose the president’s application.

Opposition parties have also applied to intervene in the matter, in the hope of making sure the report, which is currently under lock and key at the public protector’s office, will be made public.